A family whose lives were put at risk from an armed stalker because of a string of Home Office blunders are set to receive £130,000 compensation.

Immigration officials failed to act on warnings about convicted criminal Al Amin Dhalla, 44, which they received months before his campaign of harassment.

His ex-girlfriend’s parents told border staff the Canadian-born bank auditor was dangerous and had obtained a British visa under false pretences, but no action was taken.

Jilted: Dr Alison Hewitt (left) ended the one-year relationship with Al Amin Dhalla (right) after she found out he had lied about his past. Dhalla went on to carry out a campaign of harassment against Dr Hewitt and her family

Dr Alison Hewitt ended the one-year relationship when her stepfather, David Gray, discovered Dhalla had lied about his past.

In revenge for uncovering his criminal background, he pursued the doctor and her parents with crossbows and an air rifle before torching their home.

Police said catching Dhalla had saved the family’s lives.

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Today a watchdog is set to order the Home Office to make the six-figure payout. A damning report by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman said the department had missed ‘vital opportunities to protect the family’.

Dr Hewitt’s mother Pamela, a former probation officer, said their ordeal had been ‘like a horror movie’, adding that while they were pleased with the report’s findings, ‘the sad reality is this has taken so long the Home Office has not started to … close the loopholes that allowed Dhalla into the country.’

Stalker Al Amin Dhalla dressed as a doctor searches the Princess Royal Hospital

Mrs Hewitt said the Border Agency – replaced by the Border Force – should ‘hang its head in shame’. ‘We came to them with important information … but they did nothing … Unless that man is deported we will be looking over our shoulders for the rest of our lives.’

Mr Gray, a missiles systems engineer, said: ‘This shows our Government does not take seriously the security and safety of its citizens.’

Dhalla and Dr Hewitt met online in 2009. He told her he was 35, an orphan and had been in the UK for many years – all lies.

Suspicious at inconsistencies in his account, Mrs Hewitt and Mr Gray hired a private investigator and found Dhalla had served a jail term for assaulting his uncle, used three aliases and had a ten-year gun ban in Canada.

They emailed immigration officials – while Dhalla and Dr Hewitt were in Canada in 2010 – revealed his criminal past and explained he had obtained his British visa illegally. They gave details of his flight back to Britain but he was not questioned at Heathrow.

Sussex Police undated handout photo of items that was found in the back of a specially adapted van belonging to jilted former City worker Al Amin Dhalla

Letters to Home Secretary Theresa May were not answered.

After the relationship ended, Dhalla waged a campaign of terror, stalking the family with texts, emails and phone calls, sending malicious letters to her colleagues and neighbours in Brighton and hiring a detective to watch her.

In April 2011 he was arrested on weapons charges. Police informed the Home Office but were told he had permission to be in the UK.

While on bail he set Mrs Hewitt’s Buckinghamshire cottage on fire and later posed as a doctor at the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath, West Sussex, where Dr Hewitt worked.

He was arrested there by armed police who found weapons including a loaded crossbow in his car.Dhalla was convicted of offences including arson, harassment, theft and damage to property, and jailed for a minimum of six years. He faces deportation when released.

Ombudsman Julie Mellor said the family’s ‘living nightmare …would not have happened without the Home Office’s serious mistakes’.

She ordered the Home Office to carry out three reviews into how officials check a visa applicant’s background.

A Home Office spokesman said the department had apologised to the family.